NATIVE WILD FLOWERS 



ings. The compound leafage of the Blue Cohosh breaks the 

 ground in April with the immature flowers; after a while 

 the leaf spreads out and the lurid blossoms expand. The 

 berries are set upon short thick fleshy foot-stalks, and the 

 round hard fruit forms a loose panicle of drupe-like naked 

 seeds of horny texture. 



The plant may be found in open woods and grassy plain- 

 lands, known by its large bluish green leafage and the dark 

 blue berries. * 



BLOOD- KOOT. Sanguinaria Canadensis (L.)< 



(PLATE IV.) 



" Here the quick-footed wolf, 

 Pausing to lap thy waters, crushed the flower 

 Of Sanguinaria, from whose brittle stem 

 The red drops fell like blood." 



Just at the margin of the forest, and in newly-cleared 

 ground among the rich black leaf mould, may be seen late 

 in April and May the closely-folded vine-shaped leaf of the 

 Blood-root, enclosing in its fold one pure white bud. 



The leaf is strongly veined beneath with pale orange 

 veins. The simple semi-transparent round leaf stalk, as well 

 as the flower scape, is filled with a liquor of a bright orange 

 red color: break the thick fleshy tuberous root and a red 

 fluid drops from every wounded pore, whence its local 

 name " Blood-root." f 



This juice is used largely by the Indian women in their 



* The roots of this plant are in use with the Indian women, its common name being 

 " Papoose Root." Its virtues are of a singular and powerful nature, known only to the 

 native Indian. 



t The Indians have an old legend of the transformation of the Wood Thrush into the 

 form of the Blood-root, which poetical fancy has been sweetly versified by a lady in 

 Toronto, who favored me with a copy of the poem. 



II 



